VII Drabbles
by Sharnay
Summary: A collection of snippets regarding our dear friends. AU and canon timelines. More to come.
1. Chapter I: Stopped

My little foray into the minds of our beloved characters.

I own nothing.

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His chest constricted after the words had tumbled out of his mouth and she had left him with his silence. Constricted wasn't even the right word. It was like everything stopped, his whole body just stopped. There was no breath or thought, no blood pumping through his veins, no ringing or screaming in his ears. All that he could see was mulled cabernet and nothing, _nothing_, moved.

He had thought he would be absolutely afraid when it came down to this, and he guessed that maybe afterwards he would be. When he woke up.

He had worked the scenario over so perfectly in his mind that any deviation from its imagined course would be unthinkable. He would be scared, she would be mad, or even worse, indifferent. She would cry and that would be the end. She would leave and that would be more than fair punishment. They would never get a happy ending or even a fair start. It would be over before it began and it would be all his fault and he would get the hell he always deserved.

He would live with the guilt and the pain of it as his punishment until she died, until he rotted, but who knew how long that would be on his current path.

But instead of his world exploding it froze, and she was the only thing that moved.

It was so quiet. _She _was so quiet. He had never experienced her in such a silence in his life. Except for when there was ash in the air and screams in his ears and blood on her chest. But maybe he couldn't hear anything because his ears weren't working and his brain wasn't thinking. Maybe she wasn't actually quiet. Maybe she wasn't still. Maybe she was shouting at him and screaming at him, but his eyes weren't quite right so he couldn't see her lips moving.

Maybe he was just too broken and needed to be tossed out.

Maybe he had finally gone batshit crazy and his brain finally fell out of his body and someone somewhere stepped all over it and pointed at him and laughed at the failure of a man he had turned out to be.

Maybe his words had actually broken him and she had turned on him and what little shred of his mind he had left had shut down and stopped everything because the pain of her indifference would be too much to bear.

His world was busted and he was busted and he was so busted that basic function was beyond his own control. She wouldn't want something like that, she shouldn't want something like that.

He was glitching and there was no escape function of power button to reset him with. He was frozen, his whole world was frozen and oh god if she refused him he would stay frozen like this.

A funny thing about the world stopping is the force with which it seems to start back up, and how with a smile and a sparkle and the whisper of fingertips on his face it could spin into motion again and remind him that sometimes things freak out but they can always be righted.

She could always right him.


	2. Chapter II: Persistent Patience

As she sat with her feet dipped in the healing waters of the pool, she couldn't help but notice that the man at her side was far too like the man that had raised them.

Well, maybe he was a bit more talkative in general, but she liked that. She _missed_ that.

The newest trait he seemed to mirror was distance. It hurt, but she understood it. She would just have to be patient, even if she was no good at it.

That morning she had breakfast ready and prepared for him when he showed up at the bar. As had become their weekend ritual, they ate together, but this week there wasn't a lot of talking. It tugged at her heartstrings to see him so closed off from her, and yet _so_ vulnerable. But she grinned and bore it like a trooper because it was what he needed.

After their breakfast, they had headed off to 'wander' around, but both of them full-well knew where they would find themselves. It was where they always found themselves.

It was a miracle the old church in Sector Five was still standing. It had most certainly seen better days, and though she hated to think that it would be gone soon, she knew that the next storm that blew through the ruins would knock it to its knees. She frowned at the thought and let her feet continue to splash in the water. It was inevitable. All things, no matter how loved, passed on sometime.

The thought twinged something in her chest, and she chanced a glance over at Denzel. He sat with his arms around his knees, his eyes hooded from view behind that unruly mop of hair. But she knew the far-off look that was waiting there. She had seen it too much in the past few weeks to forget it. It was hollow and it burned into her, making her desperate to fix it. She wanted him to talk, to get it out in the open, but she never pushed him.

Patient persistence. That was perhaps the most important life lesson Tifa had taught her. No matter how badly you wanted to push, you waited. Your family would always come home to you in the end.

She let a sigh escape and tipped her head towards the sky. The sun felt wonderful today, and she wondered if Denzel even realized how lovely it really was. He seemed so far away that she had a hard time guessing what was going on in his mind.

Marlene missed him. _Gaia_ how she missed him.

But she couldn't help but think it was nothing compared to just how deeply Denzel missed Cloud. She knew firsthand that the man's death had left a whole in all of their hearts, but she could see that it left a particularly nasty wound in Denzel's.

Marlene wished that he would talk to her, that he would share his pain and let her shoulder some of the load. There had been nights when she wanted to scream it was so frustrating, but every time Tifa's voice would be there to remind her to be strong. To remind her that _Denzel_ needed _her_ to be strong for him now.

Patience. It always came back to patience.

It had taken some adjustments, but she knew that with a patient and steadfast heart she could not only heal herself, but set Denzel on the road to recovery. She didn't know what to say, didn't know what she _could_ say. She just knew that she had to be there to try, and to pull him up when he let himself get knocked back down.

She felt a bolt of determination strike her, and it brought a smile to her face. If Tifa had been able to wrangle in Cloud, Mr. Introverted and Wounded himself, then she without a doubt knew she could help Denzel.

And she would be damned if anyone tried to stop her.

With earned comfort, Marlene scooted herself closer to Denzel, stopping just shy of brushing up against his arm. She felt his gaze shift to her, but instead of meeting his eyes she pressed even closer. She felt his arm instinctively close around her and let out another contented sigh. No words were needed. It was moments like this that helped her realize just how golden silence could be.

In that little moment the world felt right. The pain of loss was gone. The fear of the unknown was somehow softened. And weakness was strengthened.

Come hell or high water she knew that she would always be there for Denzel. No matter how far he strayed, he would always be able to come back to her. Because greater than any other lesson she had learned in her years with her wardens, it was that the ones you loved always came home.

_Always._

Denzel was her home, and she his.

And she had unfailing faith in him. He would always come back to her.


End file.
